December 20, 1998

THE MAVERICKS

10 in House Who Broke Party Ranks on the Vote

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

ASHINGTON -- These are the 10 lawmakers, five Republicans and
five Democrats, who broke party ranks on the crucial first vote on
impeachment to charge President Clinton with lying to a federal
grand jury.

Republicans who voted against impeachment:

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Conn., 53. Elected in August 1987 in a
special election. For much of his 11 years in Congress, he has been
a champion of reform and moderate causes, challenging the
conservative members of his party on issues from abortion to gun
control to campaign finance reform. But his conservative
credentials are never in doubt; he remains a loyalist to Speaker
Newt Gingrich and supports fiscally conservative policies.

CONSTANCE MORELLA, Md., 67. Elected in 1986. A liberal
Republican on issues like gun control and abortion, her
conservative thinking is most evident on economic issues. She faced
a well-financed Democratic challenger this fall who accused her of
moving to the right. She won re-election with 60 percent of the
vote.

PETER KING, N.Y., 54. Elected in 1992. He shuns the label
"moderate." He is proud to have received a 100 percent rating
from the Christian Coalition and is unabashed about opposing
abortion, affirmative action, bilingual education, gun control and
anything that smells like a "good government" proposal.

AMO HOUGHTON, N.Y., 72. Elected in 1986. A leading moderate
Republican who has a reputation as one of the nicest members of
Congress. He is one of the creators of a weekend-long retreat to
promote civility in the House. He has been a leading critic of
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of Clinton, but
supported the opening of the impeachment inquiry by the House.

MARK SOUDER, Ind., 48. Elected in 1994. Although he voted
against impeaching the president for perjury, he voted in favor of
the third article approved by the House Saturday, which charges the
president with obstruction of justice. He has been a voice for
conservative issues in the House and comes from a heavily
Republican district. He has also displayed an independent streak by
opposing Gingrich in the 1996 budget negotiations.

Democrats who voted for impeachment:

GENE TAYLOR, Miss., 45. Elected in October 1989 in a special
election. As a Southern white Democrat, he is part of a dwindling
political breed in Congress. He has a fiscally conservative voting
record and has distanced himself as far as possible from Washington
Democrats who are disdained in southern Mississippi. In 1996 he
announced he would not support the re-election of Clinton.

PAUL MCHALE, Pa., 48. Elected in 1992, he did not run for
re-election this year. He supported Clinton enthusiastically in
both the 1992 and 1996 elections and voted for Clinton's positions
about 75 percent of the time. In August he became the first House
Democrat to call on Clinton to resign. In November he offered a
censure resolution as an alternative to impeachment.

RALPH HALL, Texas, 75. Elected in 1980. Throughout his career in
Congress he has been a staunchly conservative Democrat who
regularly sides with the Republicans. He supported substantial
portions of the Republicans' Contract With America in 1995.

CHARLES STENHOLM, Texas, 60. Elected in 1978. The 10-term
Democrat has emphasized conservative issues and political
independence in his increasingly Republican district. He often
bucks his own party on such issues as federal spending and abortion
rights, voting with Clinton about half the time.

VIRGIL GOODE JR., Va., 52. Elected in 1996. First won election
by campaigning as an old-fashioned conservative on such issues as
guns, abortion and tobacco while appealing to more liberal
constituents with his support for civil rights and federal support
for education. Like the other Democrats voting in favor of
impeachment, he was one of the 31 Democrats who voted to open the
impeachment inquiry.